Review: Tempest

‚Tempest‘ #1by Julie Cross

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Synopsis:The year is 2009. Nineteen-year-old Jackson Meyer is a normal guy… he’s in college, has a girlfriend… and he can travel back through time. But it’s not like the movies – nothing changes in the present after his jumps, there’s no space-time continuum issues or broken flux capacitors – it’s just harmless fun.
That is… until the day strangers burst in on Jackson and his girlfriend, Holly, and during a struggle with Jackson, Holly is fatally shot. In his panic, Jackson jumps back two years to 2007, but this is not like his previous time jumps. Now he’s stuck in 2007 and can’t get back to the future.
(Source: Goodreads.com)

My thoughts about the book:For me it is difficult to review this book, because it was partly really good, but on the other side there were a few things which have disturbed me. Particularly the beginning has made it difficult for me, not because it was dull or something like that, on the contrary – I found particularly the beginning extremely thrilling and exciting, the thing that happened with Jackson, but I had my problems with Jackson – the central figure. For uncertain reason I couldn’t feel with him at first. For me he was partially too unconcerned, careless, irresponsible and childish. He always only wanted his fun instead of responding to serious obligations – all that was unlikeable for me. Also because he was already nineteen years old, but he doesn’t behaved like that.

Like everything in his life, he also handles his discovered ability of the time jumps very playfully, as he constantly tries out new experiments with his friend Adam and where he only can jump back for a few minutes or the most some hours. In this manner‚ these two are fooling around with his ability, until one day two bad agents appear, when Jackson is with his girlfriend Holly – who gets shot by them. Exactly at this moment Jackson jumps back to the past, but not as usual only for a few minutes, but two whole years, in a world in which he doesn’t yet know Adam and or Holly.

Now it lies completely alone to him to find out what has happened, why he is suddenly stuck in the past and isn’t able to get back to his ‘right’ 2009, like he always could before. Moreover, he also has to face other questions and dangers which concern his father, who is more than it has seemed at the beginning, and Jackson has to play a more bigger role in that whole than him he wants to – it’s not anymore only about him and Holly, but also about the future of the whole world.

Oh this sounds exciting, or? And for me it also was like that for the most part and I couldn’t put the book aside. But, nevertheless, in the in-between it has also stretched sometimes a little and it was described too exactly with the whole ‘technical‘ explanations about his time jumps, although at other places some questions couldn’t be quite adequate answered on this subject. Hence, for me it was every now and then a little bit bewildering and I had to concentrate myself not to mix up the whole times or to lose the central theme. But luckily it was still within the scope and didn’t get me frustrated. 🙂
Hence, I liked the storyline much and it could keep up my curiosity almost constantly.

Unfortunately this time I couldn’t feel so much with the characters, than I’m used to. Though Jackson has changed and his character became much more appealing and could change to the positive side, but something was missing. What is probably due to the fact that this book – is not told as usual from a girl – but from the perspective from Jackson. Although it is something new to read the perspective of the male character, I prefer the other way around. I would have liked it the most if it had been told rotationally from him and also from Holly.

What I’ve really liked was the beginning phase in which Jackson has no idea what happened and was badly searching for a way back to his old life. Here I could feel very well his desperation, so much that I almost got despairs myself and therefore I also wanted to know quickly what happened to him and why.

German Cover:I really like it, especially the colors and the letters look great. Unfortunately, the guy – who should show Jackson – doesn’t look good at all. Hence, personally I would have preferred it without him. 😉

All in all:

A book, which holds some complex and tough information, but also offers an interesting new start of a nice ‘time traveling’ trilogy, which I will follow with interest.

Rating:3,5 of 5 points – (I really liked it).

A huge Thanks for the reviewer’s copy to:

About the author – Julie Cross:Julie lives in central Illinois with her husband and three children. She never considered writing professionally until May of 2009. Since then, she hasn’t gone a day without writing.
(Source: goodreads.com)